Natsu no Hotaru
by suguru
Summary: When Tenchi gets a chance to relive his past, can he change a future in which his best friends scattered to the wind? Loosely based on the plotline of the game Anonono.


Natsu no Hotaru

Fireflies of Summer

Tenchi sat on the steps, just under the roof of the shrine his family had run for generations, looking out at the rain and wondering when things had started to go wrong. His hands ran down to the pendant around his neck--it was a small silver teardrop shape, and it was something he'd always worn, ever since Erisu had gone away. He would never see her again, he was sure, since two years had gone by without a phone call, an email, or anything--and while he was sure leaving the pendant behind for him was some kind of clue, thinking about it every day had brought him no closer to figuring out what it meant. But given what had happened before she had left, Tenchi thought, looking down the hill at the small graveyard on the shrine grounds, he couldn't say he blamed her for never returning to Tana.

The rain was falling steadily, and the air was hot and so humid even out of the rain it was hard not to get soaked. August was always like this, when it rained so much it felt like you should start rounding up pairs of animals and building a wooden ark. Tenchi looked up at the falling rain--he had dark hair, brown eyes, was average academically, decent at sports, and there was a time he'd been surrounded by friends. But now things were different--Erisu was gone, her bright smile a memory, and the rest of his friends scattered to the wind. Tenchi had graduated from high school four months ago, and had failed his college entrance exams the first try, so now he was studying for a second attempt--but the exams were months away, and the thought of the solitude of studying all day for six more months seemed more oppressive than the humidity. The shrine didn't even have any visitors today to talk to, he thought, although he couldn't blame people for staying away because of the rain.

Suddenly, from the steps leading up the steep hill to the shrine, Tenchi saw a plastic umbrella--and a moment later he saw his old friend, Suginami, the guy who had sat behind him in class and somehow aced every test without ever appearing to study or even pay the slightest but of attention to the teacher. Tenchi stood up as Suginami approached, and Suginami smiled and lowered his umbrella as he got under the roof of the shrine.

"Tenchi, my friend--you look like hell. Are you sleeping enough?" Suginami asked.

"Ah, sorry--didn't bother shaving this morning," Tenchi said, laughing. He hadn't seen Suginami in months, but Suginami went to a university in Kobe two hours away, so that wasn't surprising. "What brings you back here? Tired of life in the big city?" Tenchi asked.

"The big city...it's different, it's not all it's cracked up to be though," Suginami said, looking towards the graveyard nearby and then sitting down on the steps. Tenchi sat back down nearby as Suginami looked out at the small town they lived in, Tana. The shrine was in the foothills, and had a good view of the town below, a relatively small town nestled between the hills and the Inland Sea. The Inland Sea was a dull gray, reflecting the skies above, and not too far from the shrine they could see the high school they had gone to, empty since it was summer vacation. "Do you remember the first day we went to Tana High? I think we knew everyone in the classroom before we walked in the door. The big city--it's the opposite of that, everywhere you go. I know why people leave places like this, but now I understand why people come back too."

"Are you moving back here?" Tenchi asked. "It'd be a long commute."

"No, although it'd be nice to tell my landlord to stuff it, I don't think I could handle living with parents again or the hours on the train," Suginami said.

"What brings you back here, then?" Tenchi asked. "Did you..." he started to say, looking at the graveyard.

"Come to visit Miyoshi? No--I miss her, we all do, but it's not good to dwell on the past," Suginami said.

"You sound like my grandfather," Tenchi said, absently playing with the silver pendant around his neck.

"Your grandfather is wise," Suginami said. "No matter how much we want to, we can't change the past."

"I know," Tenchi said, looking out at the rain.

"You should get out of here," Suginami said. "Sitting here with Miyoshi in plain sight is enough to make even me cry like a little girl. I still miss Kokoro and Erisu, you know. Miyoshi too--they were all one in a million."

"I know," Tenchi said quietly. "You and Kokoro used to fight all the time though," Tenchi said.

"That's true--but I think both her and Erisu liked you," Suginami said. "If you'd asked either of them out, I'd bet they would have gone out with you."

"I doubt that's true," Tenchi said, looking out in the distance. "I haven't heard from either of them...for two years."

"Me neither," Suginami said. "But that's the past. You need to start looking forward again."

"Who says I'm stuck in the past?" Tenchi asked.

"Look at you--not bothering to shave, wearing the pendant Erisu gave you two years ago...do you think she'd be happy to see you gloomy like this?" Suginami asked.

"It's hard...not to think about it," Tenchi said, looking out at the valley below. "Miyoshi's accident--if I'd just been there with her instead of up on the roof I could have caught her."

"So could I. But accidents are called accidents for a reason, no one wants them to happen, they just do," Suginami said. Two years ago, Miyoshi had died in an accident during preparation for the school festival. Erisu, as the student body president, had convinced the school to let the students have a festival--and after Miyoshi died she had been racked with guilt and moved away. And Kokoro--she had gone abroad with her parents, also without saying a word to anyone first. Tenchi remembered hearing Erisu crying out "Miyoshi!" after the accident--it was an anguished cry he knew he would never forget.

"I know that...but...if things had been different...if I had taken the job to organize the festival when Erisu offered it to me..." Tenchi said.

"I thought you said she was joking," Suginami said.

"I'm not sure now..." Tenchi said. He remembered the moment Erisu had asked him to be the festival coordinator--he had been nervous about it and turned her down, and for just an instant she'd looked shocked, then she'd quickly recovered and told him she was just kidding. But had she been? It had been two years after all, could he even remember her expression correctly?

"Anyway...there's nothing we can do about the past. But you can change your future," Suginami said.

"For the next six months my future is being a ronin," Tenchi said. Ronin were masterless samurai in feudal times--but today they were students who failed their entrance exams and spent the next year in a grinding routine of studying.

"You don't have to be a ronin here in Tana," Suginami said. "This town--we have a lot of good memories from here, but it's time to move on. My building has a vacancy--the rent is really cheap. Hell, if you want you can stay at my place and crash on my spare futon in the living room. It might be good, a change of scenery. You're too young to sit here on a rainy day thinking about the past--you're too young to be an old man already."

"I know...but I have to help grandpa out with the shrine," Tenchi said.

"You can always come back for the weekend or to help out whenever you need to. You don't have to decide right now," Suginami said, standing up. "Just think about it--a change of scenery would do you good. You can study anywhere, and in Kobe I can hook you up with a decent part time job."

"I'll think about it," Tenchi said. Suginami nodded.

"Just remember I'll keep pestering you until you agree," Suginami said. He unfurled his umbrella and walked away, disappearing down the steps to the shrine. Tenchi looked up at the sky--it was a uniform gray, with bands of lower clouds below it, and rain falling steadily, filling the air with its scent and pattering on the roof of the shrine, the ground, everything.

Tenchi looked down at the pendant--why had Erisu given it to him when she left? He had found it in his shoe cubby at school one morning, with a note that said "I'm sorry." She had worn it all the time, everywhere she went--he didn't know why but clearly it was important to her. Had she left it there to leave her old life behind completely, along with the memory of Miyoshi? Or was it a clue he was supposed to figure out? Tenchi remembered Miyoshi's smile, her eagerness, how when he coached her JV volleyball team, she was always so hard-working, just full of life. But life had been taken from her, abruptly. And Kokoro--Kokoro had been his friend since kindergarten, Erisu and Suginami his friends since junior high. All of them had eaten lunch together every day in school, laughed together, played together--but now he saw only Suginami, and that rarely. He looked towards Miyoshi's grave and thought about the pain on everyone's faces at her funeral--seeing Erisu and Kokoro crying was almost as painful as losing Miyoshi was.

If he had found a way to comfort them...would they still have left? Kokoro's parents were transferred abroad--she would have gone anyway. But not even saying goodbye? Erisu--she was in Tokyo somewhere, where her father had moved after her parents had gotten divorced. Tenchi remembered the five of them--him, Suginami, Kokoro, Erisu, and Miyoshi, having a party under the sakura blossoms in spring, cheering for Miyoshi at her first volleyball game at Tana High, spending hours in the main building of the shrine together studying for exams--he felt tears coming to his eyes and his throat getting tight as he remembered how fun everyday life had been.

"Why...why did it all have to end like that?" Tenchi said to the rain. Miyoshi...Erisu crying over her body after she fell, begging her to get up... Tenchi shook his head--maybe Suginami was right. Maybe he needed to leave. But this place was where he had been happy. Happiness he had probably taken for granted. Happiness he wished more than anything he could get back. Tenchi turned to the shrine, clapped twice to get the attention of the gods, and prayed.

"I know this is impossible...but I want everything to go back to the way it was," he said, a tear rolling down his cheek. "I want to do things differently...I want to save Miyoshi...and for all of us to be together. Even if it meant exchanging my life...that's what I want. For everyone to be together again," he said. He opened his eyes--of course, nothing had changed, no matter how sincere his wish had been. He turned to walk back to the house--tomorrow he would call Suginami. He had been happy here, but Suginami was right. The past, after all, couldn't be changed, and thinking about the past just depressed him.

Tenchi hadn't noticed that while he'd had his eyes closed, praying, the silver teardrop-shaped pendant around his neck had glowed a bright blue.

"Tenchi-kun! Ten-chi-kun! Get up, we'll be late for class!" Kokoro's voice called, as she tried to shake Tenchi awake. He blinked and looked up, his eyes widening in surprise. Kokoro was standing over his bed, looking concerned. Her hair tied in two ponytails with pink ribbons, like she always wore it, and she was wearing the blue-and-white summer uniform of their school. Tenchi rubbed his eyes--he had to be dreaming. But his childhood friend who he hadn't seen or heard from for two years was standing right in front of him.

"Kokoro! Where...where have you been? Is it really you?" Tenchi asked, looking around. His room looked different--the posters were different than what he'd had on the wall before--had Kokoro redecorated? But no, everything looked familiar--but more importantly why was Kokoro wearing a high school uniform--

"Are you really awake? Come on, we'll be late if you don't get up," Kokoro said.

"Late...for what?" Tenchi asked.

"School, of course...are you still asleep?" Kokoro asked. Tenchi looked at the cell phone at his bedside--the date it gave was two years ago. Was it possible? Had the shrine granted his wish?

"What...what...when is the school festival?" Tenchi asked. "Is Miyoshi going to be there?"

"We're all going to be there, of course Miyoshi will too...what kind of dream did you just have?" Kokoro asked, confused.

"But when is it?" he asked, urgently.

"Two weeks from now--the 5th. We were talking about that on the way home, weren't we? I know you're tired, but you have to wake up--seriously, you're not going to have time to eat breakfast," Kokoro said.

"Um...OK," Tenchi said, his mind racing. The 5th--Miyoshi had died on the 4th, August 4th. He was here two weeks before that. When had Erisu asked him to run the festival committee? It had to be right around now...

"Are you really OK? You're acting kind of strange..." Kokoro said.

"I'm fine, really," Tenchi said, laughing nervously. "Sorry, I just..." he said, looking at Kokoro. He had missed her--he had missed everyone. "I'm...I'm glad you came by this morning."

"Don't I stop here every morning, though?"

"You do, I know, but--I'd really miss it if you didn't, I think," Tenchi said. Kokoro blushed and looked away, but looked a little sad also. That's right, Tenchi thought, she's moving soon. Even though she hasn't told me about it, she knows. He remembered Suginami telling him Kokoro and Erisu liked him--but he dismissed that thought, after all Suginami couldn't know that, because they wouldn't have confided something like that in him.

"I'll wait downstairs--five minutes, OK? Can you do it?" Kokoro asked.

"No problem," Tenchi said, and Kokoro smiled and left. Tenchi got up and saw his old high school uniform hanging over the chair by his desk--he had thrown it out when he'd graduated, but here it was untouched.

"Impossible..." he said, getting up and looking at himself in the mirror. He looked slightly younger too--he really had gone back two years. Or rather, that that miserable two years just been a dream? Some kind of nightmare? A warning not to repeat the same mistakes? But what could he do differently this time? He was afraid to believe it, that Miyoshi was alive and he'd see Erisu again soon, but he looked where he kept his wallet, and the pendant he'd left there the night before was gone. He pinched himself--it wasn't a dream, this was really happening. He opened his wallet--and there was his student ID--Masaki Tenchi, Tana High, second year. Maybe the last two years really had just been a nightmare, he thought. If they were, he hoped he'd never have another nightmare like them. Or maybe his prayer had been heard, and the gods had given him another chance. His grandfather had been a Shinto priest since about the dawn of time, so he might know something. Tenchi looked over at the clock--and he hurried to get ready, grabbing his uniform out of the closet.

A few minutes later, he was walking down the street towards school with Kokoro, no wiser to why the last two years seemed to have been undone and he was back in high school. His grandfather had left the house already and was up at the shrine, so he hadn't been able to ask him if he'd noticed anything strange. He was trying to figure out what could have happened to him, when someone came up behind him and put their hands over his eyes.

"Guess who?" Erisu's voice said.

"Erisu-chan," Tenchi replied, surprised.

"Just like Ten-chan to get it right away," Erisu said, letting go and walking next to him, smiling. "I need to get better at changing my voice. Good morning, Kokoro-chan."

"Morning, Erisu-chan," Kokoro said.

Tenchi tried not to stare at Erisu, but he felt relieved just to see her again. He couldn't say anything, since to her they had talked just the day before, but Tenchi had really missed her. He could see the silver string for the pendant around her neck--she always wore it, since he'd met her, although she always changed the subject when he asked why. Erisu was a year older, but they had met in junior high and been good friends since then. Every day at lunch they had eaten together, and Kokoro, Tenchi, and Suginami would always come cheer for Erisu when she was in archery or tennis matches. She was also the student body president, got good grades, and while she wasn't the school's star or anything, she had a girl next door cuteness to her too. But none of that went to her head--she was one of the most level-headed people he knew, Tenchi thought.

"What's wrong, Ten-chan, you're kind of quiet today?" Erisu said.

"He had some kind of strange dream this morning, I think," Kokoro said.

"Ah? Were we in your dream?" Erisu asked.

"Um...no. No one was--it was...it was hard to explain," Tenchi said.

"Bummer--I thought for sure I was dreamworthy, and here you go crushing my ego," Erisu said, laughing. "Hey, Suginami!" she called as she saw him a block ahead. He stopped and waited for Tenchi, Kokoro, and Erisu to catch up.

"Now we just need Miyoshi and the whole Fab Five could get to school at the same time," Erisu said.

"I think Miyoshi-chan said she had club practice early--wait, Tenchi, why aren't you there too?" Kokoro asked. Tenchi blinked--that was right, he was an assistant coach on the junior varsity girls volleyball team Miyoshi played on. Although when had their practices been? Was it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday? His cell phone had said today was Wednesday. Had he forgotten to set his alarm the night before?

"Was practice really today?" Tenchi asked.

"Ten-chan...the girls will be disappointed with you," Erisu said, shaking her head. "Volleyball and basketball have junior varisty practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, starting this week. And poor Miyoshi even told you not to forget at lunch yesterday," she said.

"Well...I guess it's too late now," Tenchi said, "I'll apologize to her at lunch." He couldn't believe it--Miyoshi really was alive. But in this world, where the school festival hadn't started yet, of course she was. "I was wondering...when is the school festival going to be?"

"School festival?" Suginami asked. "They'll never let us have one--not after what happened ten years ago." Ten years ago a student had been seriously hurt during preparations, and the faculty had used that as an excuse to ban it. "All that stuff about the student's safety is nonsense though--every other school in the country has a festival. It's just the faculty doesn't want to lose a week of lecture time."

"Do you think that's really their reason?" Kokoro asked.

"Of course it is," Suginami replied confidently. "But that's why they'll never let us have one."

"They're letting us this year," Erisu said. "I was going to tell you at lunch--but I talked to the principal yesterday and he agreed. For the week before, though, instead of spending all day preparing like at some other schools, we'll have classes in the morning and we'll get afternoons to prepare."

"How will that work, though?" Suginami asked. "If we're halfway through turning our class into a haunted house, the teacher's going to lecture the next morning anyway?"

"It'll work out," Erisu said confidently. "Don't go telling everyone yet though--I'm going to make an announcement during homeroom. But that reminds me, Ten-chan, there was something I wanted to ask you, if you can stop by the student council room before lunch."

"You'll miss out on the yakisoba sandwiches then," Suginami warned. The school had a small store run by the student council that sold sandwiches at lunch--the yakisoba one was the most popular, and consequently it always ran out first. If you didn't get there within two minutes of the lunch bell ringing, you didn't have a chance.

"I'm sure you can buy three of them for us," Erisu said. "Tenchi and I will catch up with you after."

"I suppose...although I should warn you that I charge commission on every order," Suginami replied, and Erisu laughed. Tenchi smiled--the sound of Erisu's laugh was just another thing, he thought, that he had taken for granted. He hoped that this was real, and not just a dream, because after being back here with everyone again, he didn't want to ever see a future without them in it again.

Morning classes went by in a haze--Tenchi had a test in history and didn't have nearly the problems with it that he remembered having in high school, but that was probably partly since he was doing it over again. That made him wonder if it really had been a dream--how could he remember things he'd been studying for the last two years then?

Tenchi thought he needed to talk to his grandfather and see what he knew about it. Something had happened that was out of the ordinary, and grandpa was a master of out of the ordinary things. When Tenchi was little, he'd seen his grandfather fight a kappa, or at least that's what it had looked like, on top of a hillside a few miles out in the country. It had been during a family picnic, when he was only three or four years old and his parents were still alive. They had gone for a walk far up a stream, and Tenchi had gotten lost--he had to have been only four or five at the time. He didn't remember much else--all he remembered was getting lost in the morning, and sometime that night, he had been attacked by a kappa. He didn't remember what it looked like, only that it had been the scariest thing he'd ever seen, and just when he thought all hope was lost, his grandfather had appeared out of nowhere and killed it. In spite of that, he still remembered that trip to the countryside being fun--but that was a memory from long enough ago, he was sure he'd never get it back.

The bells rang for lunch, and Tenchi got up from his seat--Suginami and Kokoro were in the same class as he was, and they got up too when they heard the bell.

"Just think, starting next week, the lunch bell will be the end of class for the day. Thank God we got Erisu-chan elected," Suginami said.

"All we did was help put up posters--Erisu-chan got elected because she's the best one for the job," Kokoro said. "Tenchi, you had to go meet her now didn't you? You want to meet us up on the roof?"

"It'll be hot up there today though--why don't we go to Plan B?" Suginami asked. Plan B was the big willow tree behind the tennis courts--it got the best breeze from the Inland Sea of anywhere on campus, and between that and the shade it was the perfect place to eat lunch when it got too warm.

"Plan B sounds good to me," Tenchi said. "It is a little hot today. I'll bring Erisu."

"See you there," Kokoro said.

Tenchi walked out into the hallway, as Suginami made his move, sprinting towards the sandwich store. Their classroom was at the end of the hallway, which put him close enough to the store that it wasn't too hard to get to the front of the line. Suginami had a special talent for squeezing his way to the front of any line--Tenchi was too polite, he thought, so even if they got to the line at the same time, Suginami had his order well before Tenchi did. That was the reason they usually delegated getting lunch to Suginami.

"Tenchi-senpai!" Miyoshi's voice called behind him, and Tenchi froze in his tracks. He turned around and he couldn't believe what he saw--there was Miyoshi, in her school uniform, smiling and waving at him as if nothing had happened. He remembered at her funeral, it had felt like he'd been burying his little sister--she was kind of like a little sister to all of them, really, always energetic and doing her best, but a little clumsy too. She had short brown hair and brown eyes, and she looked like she could still be in junior high, and she cute enough that she'd had two of her classmates confess to her that they liked her so far this year. She ran up to Tenchi and he choked up, not sure what to say--he wanted to hug her and thank God that she was all right, but if he did, she'd probably think he'd gone nuts.

"What's wrong, senpai?" Miyoshi asked. "Don't worry, I won't beat you up this time--I know you probably just overslept."

"O...overslept?" Tenchi managed to say.

"For practice this morning--the truth is, I totally forgot we'd moved it to Wednesdays too," Miyoshi said, sticking out her tongue. "I was a half hour late and coach yelled at me for a while...but it's probably good you missed it completely, otherwise it would have been even worse for me. Are you going to lunch with everyone? Can Nanako-chan and I come?" Nanako was Miyoshi's best friend, going back to kindergarten, although Miyoshi was close to Kokoro and Erisu too.

"Sure--we're going to meet up at the willow tree behind the tennis courts," Tenchi said. "I have to talk to Erisu for a sec, but I'll be there in a few minutes."

"OK--see you then, Coach," Miyoshi said, bowing goodbye and then hurrying off. Tenchi watched her leave--he was glad to see she was OK. But with the school festival coming up, he'd need to keep a close eye on her. Maybe it was her fate to die somehow during the festival, but Tenchi couldn't accept that--he would do whatever he could to make sure Miyoshi got through it OK. He wouldn't let her go anywhere near a ladder the day before the festival, that much he was sure of.

As he walked down the halls past crowds of students to the student council room, he thought about what he could do differently with his second chance. Kokoro moving away--that was tough, because she was close to her family and he had heard her father had been transferred overseas for work. But he could at least get her a proper send-off this time, without the black cloud of Miyoshi's death in the background. Miyoshi he'd just have to keep a closer eye on--and if she was OK, then Erisu might not have moved away either. Erisu's parents had gotten divorced a year ago, and she lived with her mom now in Tana, while her dad lived in Tokyo. After Miyoshi had died, Erisu had gone to live with her dad--but if Miyoshi lived, Tenchi doubted that would happen. Erisu had blamed herself for Miyoshi's death, no matter how hard he'd tried to convince her it wasn't her fault, and it had probably been too painful for her to stay in Tana with all the memories that went with it.

Tenchi remembered how the first time around, Erisu had called him to the student council room, and asked him to be the festival coordinator--he had hesitated, then said no, mainly because he didn't think he could do a good job. But in the end, Erisu had ended up doing it herself, and that plus being student council president was just too much work for one person to do. Even if he didn't have experience running a school festival and didn't do a stellar job, Tenchi thought this time he had to accept because at least he'd be able to support Erisu.

He reached the door to the student council room, which was on the first floor between the teacher's lounge and the nurse's office. The door was closed for a moment and he stopped, feeling nervous picturing Erisu on the other side. He took a deep breath and told himself there was nothing to be nervous about--he hadn't seen Erisu in two years, but before that he had talked to her every single day. He knocked and waited for a moment.

"Come in!" Erisu called through the door, and Tenchi walked in to the room, closing the door behind him. Erisu was sitting on the edge of a low bookshelf, holding some papers in one hand and a carton of banana milk in the other, which she took a sip of as Tenchi closed the door behind him. Tenchi smiled--Erisu loved banana milk, she drank it pretty much all the time even though he didn't know anyone else who pressed that button on the vending machine.

"Ten-chan! Thanks for coming, there's something I wanted to talk to you about," Erisu said, kicking her legs back and forth. She also had a habit of sitting on the bookshelves, the table, anywhere but the chairs in the student council room--Tenchi didn't think he'd ever seen her actually sitting in one in this room. He pulled up a chair and sat down, as Erisu took another sip, the noise from the straw filling the small, quiet room.

"What did you want to talk about?" Tenchi asked, although he already knew.

"So...you heard the announcement this morning about the festival--how did people react?" Erisu asked.

"If you ran for re-election, you'd win with 100 of the vote," Tenchi said, and Erisu smiled. "Seriously, I think half the class was ready to name their first born children after you whether they're girls OR boys."

"They're probably just happy they get half-days all next week," Erisu said, blushing a little.

"Well, maybe--but I think people are excited about the festival itself too. Kokoro was talking about it every break, what our class should do," Tenchi said.

"I just hope it's not all cafes, though," Erisu said. "But there's a lot to do--we only have two weeks until it starts. One week until everyone starts work on their classrooms."

"That's true...if you need anything though, just let me know and I'll try to help," Tenchi said, diverting from last time's script. Erisu smiled--and something about the look of gratitude in her eyes made his heart beat a little bit faster. When she smiled, Tenchi thought, Erisu really was beautiful. Had he not noticed this before? Or had he always known and just not told her? Not that he could tell her now, he thought--come to think of it, although she had never mentioned it she could have a boyfriend or someone she had a crush on.

"As a matter of fact, there's something I wanted to ask you that would help out a lot. Would you take the job of being festival coordinator?" Erisu asked.

"Sure," Tenchi said, without hesitation this time, and Erisu beamed.

"Thanks, Ten-chan--I knew I could count on you," she said. Tenchi felt guilty--that meant last time, she hadn't been kidding at all. She had thought she could count on him, and he'd turned her down--he felt terrible. "It'll be hard work, but it'll be a lot of fun too. And I'll be working with you, so it's not like you'll have to figure everything out yourself. Here--these are from the last festival's coordinator, it should be a good list to get started with," she said, getting down from the bookshelf and handing the list to Tenchi. He took a look--there was a list of contacts, everyone from the police and fire departments to the local hospital, and a checklist of things to do, from making sure there were extra fire extinguishers for every class making hot food, to permits that had to be received from the city, papers to advertise in so everyone in town knew it was coming, flyers to order, rules to give each class for what they could and couldn't do--it was a daunting list that made all the work ahead of them really sink in.

"Still feel up for it?" Erisu asked. Tenchi looked up at her and saw the silver pendant dangling from her neck. It felt weird to see her wearing something he had kept on him every day for the last two years--or the next two years, to be precise.

"Sure--when do we get started?" Tenchi asked. "What should I do first?"

"What I'd do is list out everything you can think of in a spreadsheet," Erisu said, pointing to the computer next to the wall. They moved over to the computer and Tenchi sat down in front of the screen.

"Here's what I used for the athletics festival," Erisu said, pulling up a spreadsheet with a list of tasks that needed to be done, who was responsible for them, and when they needed to happen. "We can talk about this more after class, but this is kind of like a plan for the whole event, we can use this as a template to start with. If you want to start on it after school I'll come help right after archery practice. Once we have this complete, all we have to do is keep checking things off on schedule and the festival will be a success," Erisu said.

"Wow...this is impressive," Tenchi said, looking at the detail she had in the plan. "No wonder you're the student council president." Erisu smiled.

"This is just one of my many talents," she joked.

"Don't let it get to your head though--I'm just in shock that someone can be this organized and still can't make scrambled eggs," Tenchi said, teasing her--during summer vacation Kokoro had come down with the flu and Erisu had tried cooking for her, with horrific results.

"Hey! Don't forget, the festival coordinator works directly for the president, so as long as you're the coordinator that means I own you," Erisu said. "Come on, let's go get lunch, everyone will wonder where we are," she said, getting up.

"Erisu-chan...there's something I wanted to ask you too--in exchange for being the festival coordinator," Tenchi said. Erisu raised a finger.

"Too late--you already accepted. The time to put conditions on taking the job was five minutes ago," Erisu said.

"Well, just as a favor then--where did you get that pendant?" Tenchi asked. He was curious because she had left it for him in his locker when she'd disappeared, so it had to have something to do with him, he just had no idea what. Erisu stopped for a moment, then blushed slightly.

"I won't tell you--but I'll give you a clue. Your clue is: fireflies," she said quickly, and before Tenchi could ask anything else, she had opened the door and started out into the hallway.

Tenchi sat in class, trying to pay attention to the lecture, but failing and ending up glancing at his watch instead. Just two minutes until class was over for the day--he had been thinking all afternoon about the festival, and what all the things he'd need to prepare as festival coordinator to make it a success. Then there was Erisu's comment about fireflies. What did she mean? Fireflies were common around Tana in the summer, you could see them just about anywhere on a night when the air was warm and still. And what could he do to make sure nothing happened to Miyoshi?

The last question was what he needed to focus on, he thought--and since he knew exactly where she had fallen off the ladder and hit her head, that would be the easiest to fix. Putting gym mats under all the ladders wherever people were working would make sure if she fell she'd fall harmlessly. To be extra safe, the time of day she died, around 3pm the Friday before the festival, instead of being up on the roof taking a break, Tenchi would stick to Miyoshi like glue, and if anyone climbed a ladder it wouldn't be her. And if those measures weren't enough, he decided he'd also have some kind of safety officer position created, maybe one or two for each grade or even one for each class, whose job would be making sure no one did anything dangerous and that if they were on a ladder they had spotters to hold the ladder steady, which Miyoshi hadn't had.

Tenchi was starting to think this might be easy--changing the future, when you knew exactly what you needed to change, should be something that he could do, especially in his position as festival coordinator. And given that the last school festival, ten years ago, had been the last because a student had been injured, everyone should support extra safety measures.

The bell for the end of class rang--Tenchi had promised Erisu he'd go to the student council room to work on the plan for the festival, while she was at the archery meet. He got up and put his books away quickly, and Kokoro walked over to him.

"You'll do a good job as the festival coordinator, I can tell," Kokoro said. "Although I'm a little sad, too--I was hoping we could work together getting things ready for our class."

"Gomen, Kokoro-chan...I feel bad leaving you short-handed," Tenchi said. "I'll come by and help whenever I can though."

"Thanks," Kokoro said, brightening a little. Tenchi did feel bad having to leave his class--but at the same time he was looking forward to the challenge, and to save Miyoshi it was the perfect position to have. Plus there was Erisu--after not seeing her for so long, he had to admit he was a little glad this would give him an excuse to work with her.

Tenchi walked down the halls full of students leaving for the day, and went to the student council room--it was unlocked, and he found when he went in that he was the only one there. Although the windows were open it had gotten a little warm during the day, so he walked over the windows and turned on the fan sitting on the table by the windows to pull in some of the cooler air from outside. Since it was still in the 80s out, it wasn't a huge improvement, but the fan going was better than nothing.

The student council room was maybe a third the width of a normal classroom, and had a table for meetings in the middle, plus bookshelves with binders and papers on them along the walls. Tenchi wondered how much time Erisu spent here--being student council president had to be a lot of work, but she also found time to belong to the archery and tennis clubs. He set his bag down and sat down in front of the computer, starting work on the plan for the festival. He went through the papers Erisu had given him and looked over the checklist she'd prepared for the athletics festival--it was meticulously organized, and had every possible step that needs to be done, and the order they needed to be completed in. Something like that, he thought, would be invaluable for the school festival, so he started going through the notes and creating his own checklist on the computer using Erisu's as a template.

An hour and a half later, he had gotten about halfway through all the tasks, using the notes from ten years ago as a guide. He didn't have who was responsible for each task, but he'd probably need Erisu's help for that. He glanced at the clock on the wall--Erisu's meet went until 5 and it was 4:30 already. He decided he'd go watch the last part of her meet--he had seen her compete in archery meets a couple times before, but after not seeing her for so long because of his two-year long dream, or whatever it had been, he felt like he wanted to go see her again.

First, though, noticing the phone on the desk, he decided to call home and ask his grandfather about what had happened to bring him two years back in the past, and also to see if he knew anything about Erisu and fireflies.

Tenchi dialed home and the phone rang, but no one answered. He tried again, and the phone rang three, then four times--but just as the answering machine was about to pick up, he heard his grandfather's voice on the other end.

"Masaki hemorrhoid care clinic, can I help you?" his grandfather asked.

"Grandpa, you shouldn't answer the phone like that!" Tenchi protested. They didn't have call waiting so there was no way he should have known who was calling.

"I had a feeling it was you, though," his grandfather said.

"Anyway, I may be late tonight, I took a job as the school festival coordinator so I think I have a lot of work to do," Tenchi said.

"Is that so--good choice, Tenchi. I guess I'll just have to eat ramen for dinner," his grandfather said, chuckling on the other end of the line, as if he'd known already. He had an uncanny way of knowing everything that was going on in Tana, that occasionally had Tenchi wondering if he really did have some kind of supernatural powers.

"You can cook when you have to, I've seen you do it before," Tenchi said. "But there was something I wanted to ask you."

"About this morning?" his grandfather asked.

"Yes," Tenchi said, wondering again how his grandfather knew.

"This morning..." his grandfather started.

"Yes?" Tenchi asked, sitting on the edge of the chair in anticipation.

"...this morning, I completely forgot to eat breakfast," he said.

"That's not what I'm asking about!" Tenchi protested. "What I meant was if you noticed anything different about me."

"Did you get a haircut?" his grandfather asked.

"No," Tenchi replied.

"You...were wearing a new watch?" he asked. "Your grandmother used to do this, she'd change something subtle so she could yell at me for not noticing."

"No, it's nothing like that--something weird happened this morning. I graduated from high school, and was studying as a ronin to get into college--"

"See, I told you to study more,"

"--and then I prayed at the shrine that I'd get to go back and do everything over, and I woke up two years in the past, today, in my own bed. Is this just a dream? Or is the two years before I wound up back here just a dream?" Tenchi asked.

"Tenchi...there is an ancient Shinto saying, handed down in our family for thousands of years, that perfectly summarizes both what happened and what you must do," his grandfather said.

"What is it?" Tenchi asked.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," his grandfather said.

"So you're saying I shouldn't worry about it? That this is reality now and how I got here just doesn't matter?" Tenchi asked.

"Ah--the kettle's boiling. Ganbatte with your new job," he said, and his grandfather hung up. Tenchi sat down the phone--he hadn't gotten the chance to ask about the fireflies, he'd have to bring that up when he got home. His grandfather had always been like this, he thought, he was very wise, and gave good advice, but it wasn't always easy to understand it. He thought that maybe he was trying tell him it didn't matter if the accident, if the whole two years Tenchi had just been brought back to the beginning of had been real or not--either way, he was here now and he needed to save Miyoshi. Maybe it was a dream, a kind of premonition, or maybe the shrine had granted his wish, but either way he was here, he though, pinching his arm just to make sure. He saved his work so far on the computer, then got up to make his way to the archery range.

The archery team practiced and had meets against other schools in an old wooden building on the edge of the campus, with targets set up behind it. As Tenchi walked towards it, he could hear the whizzing sound of an arrow flying through the air and striking its target. He hoped he hadn't missed Erisu's turn--he hurried to the side door and made his way to the stands, looking for Erisu.

The stands were on the side of the building, perpendicular to where the contestants shot from. The stands were really just wood benches, with room for twenty or so people to sit, and half of them were empty--archery just didn't draw crowds the way the soccer or basketball teams did, although Tana had a pretty good archery team.

Tenchi sat down and looked at the competitors--he saw Erisu, sitting in back, with her bow at her side. A light breeze rustled the leaves of the trees around the old wood building, blowing Erisu's hair a little in the breeze. She hadn't noticed him yet--she was watching as one of her teammates from Tana drew back her bow to shoot. With a whizzing noise the arrow sailed through the air and struck its target, one circle out from the bullseye. It looked like Erisu was up next, and from the score on a chalkboard at one end of the wood lanai the archers were shooting from showed the score was almost even--the match was between Tana and nearby Hakuryou High. Tenchi tried to remember where Tana and Hakuryou were in the division standings, but it seemed like it was a big game. From the other reality he remembered after Miyoshi had died, Tana's archery team had just fallen short of a trip to the nationals, but that was probably because by their last game Erisu had left. Tenchi set his jaw, determined that wouldn't happen this time. Fate might be cruel at times, but this time he had a chance to set things right, and surely that was part of fate too.

Both archers finished shooting, and with their results counted in the score was almost tied, with Hakuryou leading Tana by a single point. Erisu got up, barefoot and wearing the white robe and blue pants that all the archers competed in.

"Ganbatte!" a couple people called, and she looked over at the stands and saw Tenchi. Tenchi waved and Erisu looked surprised for a moment, then smiled and winked at him, blushing just a little. She stood at the ready, waiting for the girl from the visiting team to make her first shot. Erisu really looked cute in her archery uniform, Tenchi thought, although the truth was, he was sure she would look good in anything. He wasn't sure why, but it was hard to take his eyes off of her. He felt like there had been some critical part of him, the part that would let him truly be happy, that had been missing for the last two years, and now he had found it again. Erisu glanced over at him and smiled, just a little, then went back to watching as the other girl drew back and fired. The shot was a bullseye and some people behind Tenchi murmured about how she was Hakuryou's ace.

"Ganbatte!" Tenchi called as Erisu stood at the ready. She took a deep breath, drew back her bow and then fired--but it wasn't quite a bullseye and she hit one ring out. The girl from Hakuryou did the same, then Erisu hit a bullseye. Now they were tied, and had three more shots each. Erisu had to make up one point to tie the score, or two for Tana to win. The girl from Hakuryou hit one ring out again, and Erisu stepped up to shoot. She looked perfectly calm and collected despite the pressure, and nailed a bullseye again--the score for each team was now tied, with two shots to go. Tenchi remembered playing volleyball and being part of the same kind of competition, and felt a little jealous for a moment--but sadly, there weren't enough guys interested to form a men's volleyball team, which was why now he was coaching instead. Both girls hit one ring out on their second to last shots--and that meant the whole match came down to one final shot from each archer. The girl from Hakuryou looked a little annoyed--maybe she hadn't expected much competition, or just wasn't accustomed to being outshot. Tenchi watched as Hakuryou's archer pulled back her bow and released--and her face showed dismay as she hit two rings out from center. Erisu stepped up, looking confident, shot a bullseye again--and Tana won.

Tenchi beamed and clapped with everyone else watching--he was proud of her, and wondered briefly if she was really out of his league. He realized, looked at Erisu smiling, her teammates congratulating her, that she was really special, that if he made it through the festival with Miyoshi still alive and a new, brighter future in front of him, that he wanted to spend that future with her more than anything. He had carried the pendant she'd left him with him for two years, without admitting to himself that he liked her, but now, with her right in front of him again, he couldn't avoid the way he felt. Did she like him the same way though? They had been friends for a long time, and it made it impossible to tell if she liked him as more than a friend or not.

Erisu looked over at Tenchi and smiled, then pointed to the side of the building near the stands--Tenchi nodded and walked over there to meet her.

"You were great," Tenchi said, as Erisu smiled. "That was amazing."

"I have great fans cheering me on," Erisu said. "You're supposed to be working though--don't think you're not in trouble, Mr. Festival Coordinator."

"I guess you'll have to deduct this time from my salary," Tenchi said.

"Hmmm...you have a lot to learn about student government if you think you'll ever see a dime," Erisu said, laughing. "Hey, are you hungry? It's got to be almost five." Tenchi glanced at his watch.

"Five fifteen--do you want to get something to eat?" he asked, suddenly feeling a little nervous. They did stuff together as a group with Kokoro and Suginami all the time, or with their other friends too, but Tenchi couldn't think of the last time it was just him and Erisu.

"Sure, I'd love to--but only if I get to pay for dinner," Erisu said. "After all, I owe you big-time for taking on the coordinator job, otherwise I don't know who else I could have turned to." Tenchi felt like he should apologize for turning her down before, although that was in a reality that didn't exist anymore. In this world, she wouldn't know what he was talking about since he'd immediately said yes.

"OK--that's a fair deal. I hear there's a really nice Italian place on top of the hotel downtown," Tenchi joked--it was the most expensive place in town.

"I'm trying to reward you, not seduce you," Erisu said. "How about Lipton? The banana hot fudge sundae is calling me."

"For dinner, though?" Tenchi asked.

"I didn't say that was ALL I was going to have," Erisu replied, winking. "You want to meet me at the gate in ten minutes? Then after dinner we can go over the plan for the festival--you have it all done, right?"

"Well..."

"Just kidding," Erisu said, smirking. "It took me a week to put together that plan I gave you as a template. It'll evolve the more we learn. But it's tough, because no one at this school has done a festival before. Anyway--I'll see you at the gate in a few minutes, OK?"

"Sure," Tenchi said, and Erisu headed into the club building to change.

Tenchi turned and walked back through the school grounds, towards the main gate. He stopped under a tree near the main gate and stood in the shade, waiting for Erisu. Students walked by on the sidewalk, going home after their club activities or practices let out, talking and laughing as the heat from another hot summer day cooled just a little, and the sun started its descent. A couple people from his class walked by and waved--Tenchi looked back at the school building and was glad he was back here. It was a place he'd avoided since he'd graduated because while it had good memories, there were painful ones too, but this time he had a chance to do things differently. He looked out the front gate to the school at the town and the Inland Sea in the distance, the main island of Honshu visible across it. It was a pretty view, he thought, with the sea and the hills of Honshu in front, the school and the hills of the island of Shikoku behind him. He really liked Tana City--it wasn't huge, and a lot of people were tempted to leave after graduation as Suginami had, but Tenchi thought it just felt like home, as simple as that, and he knew even if he wound up living somewhere else in the future, Tana would always be his hometown.

Tenchi turned back to the school and saw Erisu coming--he smiled and waved and she waved back, hurrying over to meet him.

"You didn't have to run," Tenchi said.

"We've got work to do though--no time to waste. Besides, I'm starving," Erisu said, smiling. "Ready for Lipton?"

"Sure," Tenchi said. They walked down the street away from school, the Inland Sea sparkling in the distance, and just a few puffy white clouds up in the sky. They walked past the shops and houses near school, and came to an open lot with rice paddies on both sides, the road narrow and sidewalk-less.

"I wonder what that transfer student in your class thinks of having rice paddies a couple blocks from school," Erisu said as they walked. "Probably that they couldn't be any more out in the sticks--this field would probably cost a small fortune in Tokyo."

"Maybe...I talked to him the other day and he sounded like he was happy though," Tenchi said. "I'm sure there are good things about Tokyo that he'd miss here, and the same the other way around," Tenchi said. He glanced over at Erisu, the silver necklace she wore glinting in the sunlight. Fireflies, she'd said--he tried to remember, and for an instant he had a vision of a little girl, and stepping between her and a dark shape coming out of the mist. Erisu was a year older--could that possibly have been her?

"You're sure I'm not imposing on you with this festival coordinator thing?" Erisu asked. "I kind of feel bad when I think about how much work's involved."

"It'll be fun though, too, I'm sure. What made you decide to bring the festival back?" Tenchi asked.

"It seemed sad that we had one in junior high and that I was going to graduate from here without having a festival at all," Erisu said. "Remember how much fun it was when we had our junior high festival? I guess I didn't want to have any regrets about my senior year, to look back and say I could have pushed the administration to let us have a festival, but I didn't do it. Plus, I think it'll be fun for everyone--the school's scared about what happened ten years ago, but an accident is an accident."

Tenchi nodded--he knew in spite of what had happened in the other world Erisu was right. What had happened to Miyoshi could have happened in a swim meet, or to someone playing soccer, or to someone in the Drama Club falling off a ladder while building a set for a play. What had happened wasn't Erisu's or the festival's fault--but it wouldn't matter, he thought, because this time he could prevent the accident from happening.

They walked down the road to Lipton, which was in a block of small shops and restaurants next to the train station that stopped here on the west side of Tana. Lipton was a new restaurant, which had opened when they were in junior high school, and it was clean and spacious on the inside. Becoming a part-time waitress there was a sought-after job by all the girls at Tana High, because everyone agreed the uniforms were really cute and the job paid well for students. The place was filled with couples and families, most of whom they knew, either neighbors or other people from school.

"Hi, Erisu-san, Tenchi-kun--just the two of you?" their waitress, who had graduated from Tana the year before, said.

"Just us, Kasumi-senpai," Tenchi replied. Kasumi laughed--"-senpai" was a term students in lower grades used for upperclassmen.

"You're my customer here, you don't call me -senpai anymore," Kasumi said. "The best table just opened up, you're in luck--follow me," she said, and led them to a booth at the corner of the restaurant. It was at the corner and had a view of the train station and the ocean behind it, and Erisu and Tenchi slid in and sat next to each other. As they slid in, for a moment their hands touched, and both of them blushed a little.

"Sorry," Tenchi said.

"That's OK," Erisu said quickly.

"Here are your menus, if you need them--I'll be back in a couple minutes," Kasumi said.

"Thanks," Erisu and Tenchi said, and looked over the menu,

"Let me guess--you're getting something with bananas in it," Tenchi said.

"Are you going to start calling me a monkey again?" Erisu asked. "I was trying to thank you by taking you out to dinner, I don't want to have to end up beating you down instead."

"Eep," Tenchi said. "Although it feels weird for you to buy me dinner after you won the archery meet--I should be buying you dinner to congratulate you."

"Well, there's always next time," Erisu said, smiling.

"You know..." Tenchi said. "Do you really think you'll leave Tana? Next April, I mean, when you graduate."

"I hope so," Erisu replied. "If I don't it'll mean I'm a ronin, and spending another year studying for entrance exams would make my skin crawl."

"That's true...where do you think you'll apply to? Matsuyama?" Tenchi asked. Matsuyama was the capital of the prefecture they lived in, a twenty minute train ride away. A lot of people from Tana who went on to college commuted from Tana to there.

"I'll apply there," Erisu said. "But I'm not sure where I'll go. I think..." she said, looking at Tenchi and pausing for a long moment, like she was about to say something. "...I think it just depends on what I have to stay here for. I don't have a strong preference on where to go, but depending what happens this year might change where I want to be."

"What do you mean?" Tenchi asked. Erisu turned a little more red.

"It's nothing--anyway, we should be talking about the festival and eating huge amounts of ice cream," Erisu said, as Kasumi showed up to take their order. Tenchi wondered what she had meant by 'what happens this year'--but he didn't get to ask, since they started talking about the festival after Kasumi left, and soon were deep in conversation.

Two hours later, the sun was starting to go down and Tenchi and Erisu stepped outside Lipton--the air was noticeably cooler than it had been before, comfortably warm now but not oppressive like the heat had been at lunch. Erisu lifted her arms up above her head and stretched, looking up at the clouds, which had turned orange and pink with the setting sun.

"Lipton really is the best," Erisu said. "It's nice out now too--it's almost a shame to go back to school and work."

"I can take a pass through the plan by myself tonight if you want," Tenchi said. Erisu shook her head.

"No, I'd like to go through it with you, if that's OK," she said. Looking at Erisu, Tenchi couldn't think of anything more OK--he just liked spending time with her, whether it was to do work or not.

"Thanks--I'd appreciate your help," Tenchi said, as they started walking back towards school. Erisu hummed as she walked--she seemed to be in a good mood, and Tenchi was happier than he'd been in a long time. He knew the year would still come to an end and they'd all graduate, but this time he was sure they'd all stay together somehow.

"Do you have coaching tomorrow morning? We probably shouldn't work too late if you do," Erisu said.

"I do, that's right," Tenchi said. "But I'm OK, and it's still really early. As long as I get home by midnight I'm sure I can get enough sleep to not fall asleep on Miyoshi and everyone."

"How's the JV team's chances this year?" Erisu asked.

"They're pretty good," Tenchi said. "I think they could go to the prefecturals. The varsity's going to be really good next year."

"I'll have to come back from college to cheer for Miyoshi and them then," Erisu said. "Have you thought about where you want to go at all? To college?"

"I don't know," Tenchi said. "With my grades, I should be glad if I get in at all," he said, laughing.

"I bet you could go wherever you want to," Erisu said. "When you need to do something, you always get it done. That's one of your good qualities," she said, and Tenchi blushed a little.

"Thanks...but you really could go anywhere--weren't you in the top 5 on the last test?" Tenchi asked.

"Tests aren't everything though," Erisu replied. "Look--the moon's up already," she said, pointing to the dark side of the horizon. The moon was up, just over the horizon, looking huge and tinted a pretty gold color.

"A harvest moon," Tenchi said.

"Maybe it's a good omen for the festival," Erisu said. Tenchi nodded.

"I'm sure it is," he replied.

They walked back to the school and Erisu said she was going to go change to be more comfortable, so Tenchi went up to the student council room by himself. The school and its grounds were empty now--it felt a little weird being here when it was practically deserted. He felt a little nervous, as he went into the student council room and flipped on the lights. He propped the door open to let the air flow through and walked over to the window, looking out at the back of the school. The athletic fields behind campus were quiet now, and there were a couple stars out, behind the mountains that were behind the school. The school was in the foothills pretty much on the edge of town--there weren't any houses or neighborhoods behind it, and there were stories of people staying late and seeing coyotes or foxes on the soccer field or the baseball diamond, although Tenchi didn't see anything like that tonight. He did see that in the fields behind the school there were the winking lights of fireflies, dancing in the night air and giving off their mysterious green glow.

"Still slacking?" Erisu's voice said behind him. He turned and saw Erisu standing there in khaki shorts and a red tank top, which looked good on her--he wished he'd brought something to change into too, since while it wasn't hot anymore his uniform was a little warm.

"Do you always bring a change of clothes to school?" Tenchi asked, walking over to the computer and sitting down, as Erisu sat on the edge of the table next to him.

"Sometimes, if I know I'm going to be working late," Erisu said.

"Doesn't it feel kind of creepy being here alone at night?" Tenchi asked. Erisu laughed.

"I never stay here late by myself--only if I have a hot date," she said, winking. "I'm just kidding--but if the council and I have to work late sometimes we'll all change and stay here late, and order in dinner or something. But I could never stay here by myself because you're right, even with other people here it can be a little eerie. I think it's because it's just so full of life during the day, it's kind of strange to be here when it's quiet."

"That's true," Tenchi said.

"I feel a little bad for Kokoro, pulling you into this job--I know she was looking forward to working on your class's festival exhibit with you," Erisu said.

"I feel kind of bad too--but I'm sure there'll be some time I can help out, and I told Suginami he'd have to work double for me," Tenchi said.

"If it's Suginami that's going to cost you a lot," Erisu said, laughing.

"Yeah, he said I owed him yakisoba pan for the next two weeks," Tenchi said. "I'm going to have to borrow money from my grandpa again at this rate."

"That must be tough helping out at the shrine--if it wasn't for that you could probably get a part-time job," Erisu said.

"I don't mind though--it's been in my family forever, I guess I just see it as something I have to do," Tenchi said.

"Do you think you'll run the shrine when you're older?" Erisu said. "Or is your cousin still talking about moving back here when your grandpa retires and you graduate from college?"

"He's still talking about it," Tenchi said. "I don't think I'd be happy just running the shrine, so I think that'd be best for everyone."

"What do you want to do?" Erisu asked, her feet kicking back and forth in the air as she sat on the edge of the table. "For a career, I mean."

"I don't know for sure," Tenchi said. "That's pretty sad, I guess, being in my second year of high school and not having a clue what I want to do yet. Sometimes I think it'd be fun to run a restaurant, someplace like Lipton. Where you're working for yourself, get to talk to different people every day--something like that."

"You should, you're a really good cook," Erisu said. "That's something I could never do though, I even burn eggs," she said, looking a little pained.

"That's true--if you applied as a chef I might have to turn you down," Tenchi said.

"That's a mean thing to say to someone who just bought you dinner," Erisu said, laughing.

"Actually, if I ever did that, I think I'd need your help to get it off the ground. I don't think I'm organized enough to pull something like that off by myself," Tenchi said.

"Well, we'll see how organized you are soon," Erisu said, looking at the computer screen. "Why don't you show me what you have so far?" she asked. Tenchi nodded, and they started going through the plan for the festival.

Tenchi walked up the dirt road that led to the shrine he lived at, under what seemed like a million stars, the moon giving everything a silver glow. He had ended up working with Erisu until eleven o'clock, then he'd walked her home, even though Tana was a small town and crime was virtually unheard of. He'd said goodnight to her, and for a long moment, they had just stood in front of her house, looking into each other's eyes as the stars and the full moon shone down on them. Then a dog had barked, and Erisu had smiled and said goodnight too, and she was gone. Tenchi had waited outside her house for a moment, feeling like there was something else he should have said, but then he'd turned and headed back towards the shrine.

He reached absently for the pendant around his neck--Erisu's pendant--that he'd worn for the last two years, but of course it wasn't there since Erisu was wearing it.

"I must be going crazy," he said to the still night air as the shrine building came into view, its upturned roof reaching towards the heavens, with a vermillion torii gate in front of it. In the moonlight, the world he was in now seemed like the dream, and for a moment he was terrified he would open the door to his house and step back into the world he had known, where Miyoshi had died and his friends had scattered to the wind. He saw a light was on in the house and decided he'd get a straight answer out of his grandfather--he had to know what was going on.

"Grandpa, I'm home!" Tenchi called as he opened the front door and kicked off his shoes. The house he and his grandfather lived in was a single story building that had been rebuilt just before he was born, with four bedrooms and a large living room with a deck that ran the length of the room. All the windows along the deck were open as usual, to let in the cool night air, since the house wasn't air conditioned. Because the shrine and the house were on the edge of town, Tenchi was also the only person he knew who didn't have cable or cell phone reception--Erisu had joked that living in his house was practically like camping.

"Tenchi--out late tonight? Who's the lucky girl?" his grandpa asked, an amused smile on his face. His grandfather was 80 years old but still practiced kendo with a wooden sword behind the house every day, and was in almost as good shape as Tenchi was. His hair was all gray, but he hadn't lost any at all over the years, and his grandfather's only concession to age was he wore glasses when he was reading the paper, like he was now. Tenchi hoped if he lived to be 80, he'd still be in half as good condition.

"I got appointed coordinator for the school festival," Tenchi said. "Or I think I did--if this isn't all a dream."

"There's an old story about a man who dreamt he was a butterfly--and when he woke up he wondered if he was really a butterfly dreaming about being a man," his grandfather said.

"Butterflies don't dream," Tenchi said.

"Says you," his grandfather said. "That reminds me of a story about kappas."

"Kappas?" Tenchi asked. "That's something else I was going to ask you--was there a little girl there? When you saved me from the kappa when I was little?"

"Tenchi, you come from a line with strong spiritual powers," his grandpa said, as Tenchi sat down on the sofa across from him, the sound of crickets chirping filling the air from outside. "Something happened this morning, didn't it?"

"I went back in time two years," Tenchi said. "Or I think I did. I don't know--I don't know which one's the dream, but if this is the dream I don't want to wake up."

"Pinch yourself," his grandfather said. Tenchi did. "Did it hurt?"

"Yes,"

"Then this is real," his grandfather replied. "How it got to be real doesn't matter."

"But how is that possible?" Tenchi asked. "I went to the shrine and prayed to go back two years--but I didn't think it could actually happen! That's impossible, isn't it?"

"To know what impossible truly means, you would have to know everything in the universe. And since no one can make that claim, the word impossible has no real meaning," his grandfather said. "Tenchi, if you wished to go back and redo the past strongly enough, sincerely enough, from the bottom of your soul, then it would not surprise me if our family shrine granted that wish. There are gods for the harvest, for rain, for sun, for even time. I don't know why you would have wished to erase two years of your life and do it over, but if you've been given that chance, whatever you do don't waste it."

"I won't," Tenchi said, sounding determined.

"It's getting late," his grandfather said, folding his newspaper and yawning. "I should get to sleep, it's too late for an old fart like me to be up and about."

"Grandpa, one more thing," Tenchi asked. "That time when I was really little, when I got lost and ran into the kappa? Was there anyone else there?"

"I think you already know, or you wouldn't be asking," his grandfather said, chuckling.

"Who was it? Was it a little girl with blue eyes?" Tenchi asked.

"I could tell you...but that wouldn't be any fun at all," his grandfather said, heading down the hall to his room. "Good night, Tenchi--sleep well." Tenchi sighed--but that confirmed what he'd suspected. It had to have been Erisu--he just couldn't remember what had happened. Maybe if he tried hard enough to remember it'd come to him, he thought--he closed his eyes and sat cross legged on the floor, trying to meditate as his grandfather had taught him so he could clear his mind and remember. He could see himself running on a hillside, with someone running with him...

He lost the vision--he tried again, but couldn't remember anything past that point. He fought back a yawn--it was late, and he had to get up early for volleyball practice after all. He got up, went back to his room, and got ready to go to sleep.

The next morning, Tenchi's alarm sprang to life--he reached over and punched snooze, then bolted up in bed, wide awake, as he heard the sound of rain falling outside. A dream, he thought, panic running through him like an electric shock--the day before had been a dream, Miyoshi was buried in the graveyard outside, and he would never see Erisu and Kokoro again--but then he saw his school uniform hanging over his chair and he breathed a sigh of relief. This was real--he didn't know how he had done it, and he would probably never know, but he wasn't going anywhere. He was almost so happy he could cry--but then he realized the festival hadn't happened yet, so he couldn't say for sure he was in the clear. It seemed like sleeping had helped put his thoughts in order--he would save Miyoshi for sure, and after that, he was going to ask Erisu out.

The thought of asking Erisu out made him feel a stab of panic--she was cute, she was smart, she was funny, and all of that made him think he wanted to ask her out more than anything else in the world. But they were friends, and had been friends for so long it was impossible to tell how she'd react. She seemed to like spending time with him, but they were friends so that was a given and didn't necessarily mean she'd want to be his girlfriend. But he had to try, and if she said no, hope that they could at least go back to being friends.

That left Kokoro though--Tenchi remembered what Suginami had told him, that Kokoro and Erisu both wanted to go out with him. Kokoro did stop by his house every morning to go to school with him. And she always ate lunch with him, and Suginami and Erisu. She had been his friend since he'd been in kindergarten, and the last thing in the world he wanted to do was hurt her. There was nothing wrong with Kokoro at all--she would make someone very happy someday, he was sure of it, and to him she was part of his family. But for whatever reason, he didn't feel quite the same way about her as he did about Erisu.

Tenchi's alarm started beeping again, and he tossed off the covers and turned it off--after missing practice yesterday, he was determined not to be late today.

"OK, here it comes," Tenchi said, standing on a small platform on one side of the net and hitting the ball towards the girls who were on the other side. They were practicing returning spikes, and they were making some improvement. He hit this one at Miyoshi, and she stepped forward, put her hands together and knocked it back up into the air--and one of her teammates jumped up to hit it over the net perfectly. "Good--that's perfect!" Tenchi said, nodding approvingly. Miyoshi had been kind of a klutz at the beginning of the year, but she'd worked hard and probably improved more than any of her teammates, Tenchi thought. She wasn't going to be the star of the team, but she was dependable, and getting better with each practice. The head coach blew the whistle for the end of practice--Tenchi looked up at the clock and was surprised an hour could go by so quickly.

"OK, that's it for drills for today--good job, everyone," Tenchi said.

"Thanks, Coach," the girls called back to him, and they headed for the locker room. Miyoshi lingered for a moment to talk to Tenchi.

"You weren't taking it easy on me, were you?" Miyoshi asked. "My forearms don't hurt as much as last time."

"No, I hit it just as hard to you as everyone else--maybe even harder, just because it's you," Tenchi joked. "It's because your form has gotten better, keeping your hands locked together like that lets the ball hit both your arms and then it doesn't hurt as much to return it. You're making good progress," he said.

"When we have the festival, will you have time to come by and see my class's booth? I know you'll be pretty busy since you're the coordinator, but I think you'll like it--we're doing a dessert shop, so there'll be lots of good things to eat on the menu," Miyoshi said eagerly.

"Sure--I'll definitely stop by," Tenchi said, nodding.

"Great--see you at lunch, Coach," Miyoshi said, smiling and heading off towards the locker room. Tenchi watched her leave--he would definitely protect her, he thought. If one thing was certain, it was that she wouldn't get so much as a scratch at the festival.

Before Tenchi knew it, two weeks had passed, and he was walking through the front gate of the school on the day before the festival, what had been the worst day of his life. It had been the last day of Miyoshi's, the day of her accident. Tenchi had put more safety measures in place than had probably ever been in place for a school festival before--he'd overheard people grumbling about having to cart gym mats around every time someone wanted to climb a ladder--but he didn't care, since he knew it was for a very good reason. Tomorrow, Saturday, was the day of the school festival, so there were a million things to do, but having planned it all out with Erisu, and divided up the work between them, he was confident they would get everything done. Today, though, even his job as festival coordinator would have to come second to protecting Miyoshi.

"Hey, Ten-chan," Erisu's voice said behind him, as she tapped him on the shoulder.

"Erisu-chan--hi," Tenchi said.

"You look kind of worried--don't sweat it, we have everything covered. Besides, every event has one or two mishaps," Erisu said. Tenchi didn't think she'd be as easygoing if she knew what happened to Miyoshi--but no one would expect a freak accident like that to happen.

"You're right--I guess I'm just a little nervous, it's the first time I've been involved in something like this," Tenchi said.

"Don't forget to have fun though, OK? And tomorrow, since you work for me now I get the honor of checking out all the different booths with you, right?" Erisu asked, winking.

"Of course," Tenchi replied, smiling. If today went well, he would like nothing more than wandering the booths of the festival with Erisu tomorrow. But first, he had to get through today.

"Why don't you spend the morning helping your class get ready? The inspector from the city won't be around until mid-afternoon, and I can cover the rest of what we need to do this morning myself. I feel bad that I've already monopolized so much of your time the last couple weeks, and I'm sure Suginami and Kokoro and everyone can use your help," Erisu suggested. Tenchi thought about that--it was true the banners weren't going up until afternoon either, and that was when Miyoshi had been hurt. So he should be fine taking the morning to be with his class.

"OK--that's a good idea," Tenchi said. He did feel guilty for ditching out on his class, and he knew Kokoro was excited about the festival, since it would be the first and last one she'd get to celebrate at Tana High School.

He went inside and went up the stairs to his classroom--and although he had left home early, half his class was already there and working, making the last push to get ready for tomorrow.

"Tenchi-kun! You left early today!" Kokoro said, coming in to class a couple minutes later with Suginami.

"For Tenchi to get to class early--it must be going to rain today," Suginami said.

"I know, sorry--I told grandpa to tell you I went ahead. For once I actually woke up before my alarm," Tenchi said, as they got to work putting the finishing touches on their classroom. Today there were no classes at all, not that class would be possible with the room in the condition it was. The classroom was well on its way to becoming a haunted cafe--the desks had all been pushed together to form tables, and were covered in tablecloths with spooky-looking candelabras on them, and what looked like spider webs strung up throughout the room. Half the windows were covered in black construction paper, and people were painting gravestones and various monsters on them in glow-in-the-dark paint. There was still a lot of work to be done, but Tenchi was proud of his class--they were further along than a lot of the other classes he'd visited, and it was coming together really well.

"Do you have enough time to help out today?" Kokoro asked.

"All morning my schedule's empty--Erisu said she'd cover for me so I could help out here," Tenchi said.

"Kokoro!" one of the other girls, the representative to the student council from their class, called. "We're almost out of construction paper--can you go and get some more?"

"I'll go with you if you want," Tenchi said. Kokoro nodded.

"Great! How much do we need?" Kokoro asked, and the class rep gave her a list--then her and Tenchi set out, walking out the school gates.

"It feels weird to leave school this early, kind of like we're skipping class or something," Tenchi said, and Kokoro laughed.

"You're right, it really does feel like that," she replied. "Thanks for offering to come with me."

"No problem at all--I should be thanking you and Suginami and everyone for doing such a good job on the classroom when I haven't been able to help out much at all," Tenchi said.

"That's OK--you're the festival coordinator," Kokoro said. "If you weren't doing all that work, we wouldn't be able to have the festival at all. I'm really glad Erisu got the school to do this--last year it was a little sad to hear about other schools having festivals when we couldn't."

"That's true," Tenchi said, nodding. "It's not like we're any less responsible than students anywhere else. Hope it stays nice for the festival tomorrow," Tenchi said, looking up at the sky. It was hot already, but there were just a few white puffy clouds lazily drifting across the sky, and no sign of rain on the horizon.

"The forecast said it'd be sunny, maybe a little hotter," Kokoro said. "But if it's hot that just means we'll sell more cool drinks and ice cream. I'm a little worried we'll run out of ice though."

"There's ice at the grocery store a couple blocks away though--someone will probably have to keep running back and forth," Tenchi said.

"Unless all the other classes buy them out of stock," Kokoro said. Tenchi nodded--that was a very real possibility, because there weren't enough refrigerators in school and half the classes had plans to fill coolers with ice.

"I'll talk to the store manager on the way back," Tenchi said, wishing he'd put this in the plan. He was a little jealous of whoever was the festival coordinator for NEXT year, because they would have all his experience to go off of, while he and Erisu were kind of winging it as they went. "Maybe he can put in an extra order for ice, hopefully it's not too late. Thanks for mentioning that, though, I didn't think about that at all, but you're right--there's not THAT much ice for sale there compared to how much we're going to need tomorrow."

They reached the store they were looking for and bought the construction paper and markers on the list, then started back towards school.

"Wait--do you mind...if we take a little detour?" Kokoro asked.

"Sure," Tenchi said, as Kokoro turned down a side street. A block later they reached a small park, with swings and a slide, which was deserted at this time of day. "I remember--this is where we used to go play when we were kids," Tenchi said, as they walked over to the swings. He climbed on the seat and kicked off, swinging backwards. "I wonder how many times we went back and forth on these when we were little--probably at least a million," Tenchi said, laughing. Kokoro sat down on the swing next to him and swung back and forth a little.

"Tenchi...there's something I wanted to tell you...I promised myself I would tell you before the festival started," Kokoro said, looking straight ahead. Tenchi stopped swinging and looked at Kokoro. She was one of his best friends, and he'd known her forever--but he thought he knew what she was going to say. Her family was important to her, and her father was getting sent overseas, so she would be leaving soon. "The truth is..." Kokoro started to say, looking over at Tenchi. "The truth is...I don't know when it happened or why...but...I love you. I know you like Erisu, and I like her too--but I wanted to at least tell you how I felt before I leave," Kokoro said, her eyes tearing up a little. She looked away, over at the slide nearby. "I have to move away in two weeks...my dad is getting transferred to Los Angeles, and my mom, my sister, and I have to go with him..."

"Kokoro-chan..." Tenchi said, stunned. He hadn't taken Suginami all that seriously--it didn't seem like Kokoro treated him any differently than she ever had before, but she really did like him. But what she had said was true--the one he'd fallen in love with was Erisu. "Thank you...for telling me how you feel. I...you're right, that I really like Erisu...but I don't...I mean, you really mean a lot to me too. You're like closer than family for me, you really are...it's hard to imagine what it'll be like when you're not here," he said, as Kokoro nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek. "But...it's not like Los Angeles is a black hole and you'll never come back from there, right? We'll still be able to meet again...and talk, and IM each other--we'll still be friends, won't we?" Tenchi asked. Kokoro wiped her eyes and smiled.

"We will--we'll always be friends, Tenchi-kun," Kokoro said. For a long moment they looked at each other, and Tenchi thought if he hadn't met Erisu, he probably would have fallen in love with Kokoro. Kokoro looked at her watch and stood up. "Ah--it's getting late though, everyone's probably wondering where we are--I'll run back ahead, if that's OK--thanks for going to the store with me," she said, leaning forward and kissing Tenchi on the cheek, then hurrying off.

"Wait--I'll go with--" Tenchi started to say as Kokoro hurried off, before Suginami appeared practically out of nowhere and held his hand up in Tenchi's path, shaking his head no.

"Where did you just come from?" Tenchi said, looking around. Suginami had mentioned his family had ninja background, and times like this he wasn't entirely sure he'd been joking.

"It's better to let her be alone right now," Suginami said, looking at where Kokoro had been. "Besides, you need to have the same courage that she did, don't you? To tell someone how you feel about them."

"How much of this did you hear?" Tenchi asked, turning red.

"Nothing--I just got here," Suginami said, shrugging. "But the entire class thinks you and Erisu are going out already."

"What? How is that possible?" Tenchi asked. Suginami chuckled.

"If you think your feelings are well hidden, that means everyone can read you like a book. At least that's true in your case, my friend," Suginami said.

"Does Erisu know?" Tenchi asked. Suginami shrugged.

"I doubt it--usually the people involved are the last to figure it out in situations like this," Suginami said. "Anyway, good luck."

Erisu was walking down the hall on the second floor, looking for Tenchi, when the bell rang for lunch--for once, instead of students pouring into the halls to get lunch, the bell was practically ignored, since there were no classes and the entire campus was working at a frenzied pace to get ready for the festival. Erisu looked in the classrooms as she walked down the hall and nodded approvingly--while some were almost done and some were nowhere near finished, things were starting to look good, even if the classes that procrastinated were going to be working into the night. She reached the end of the hallway and didn't see Tenchi anywhere--she hadn't seen him all morning, except a glimpse out the window, when he was leaving the campus with Kokoro. Erisu really liked Kokoro, and she wondered what Kokoro thought of Tenchi--they had been friends forever, and it wouldn't be surprising if she liked him as more than just a friend. Erisu absently played with the pendant around her neck--then she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and sighed, since Tenchi was the only person she knew who didn't have one. It was because the shrine he lived in at the edge of town was in a dead spot, and Tenchi didn't see the point of a phone that didn't work when he was at home--but times like this, Erisu thought, it made it difficult to get a hold of him.

She thought about making an announcement over the school's intercom, but she decided she'd check the first floor, heading down the stairs as students passed by her. Most people were wearing their uniforms, but a few people were already wearing their costumes for the festival, and there was a feeling of excitement in the air, mixed with a little panic for the classes that still had a lot to do. She walked down the hall past the first-year students, and after a couple classrooms she saw Tenchi, helping Miyoshi drape tablecloths over the desks. Miyoshi's class was doing a dessert shop, and it was farther along than most--Erisu was sure they wouldn't have a problem being ready in time.

"Hey," Erisu said, walking over to Tenchi and Miyoshi.

"Erisu-senpai! We're getting there--Coach is helping us out since I promised him a free parfait tomorrow," Miyoshi said.

"Do I get a free one too?" Erisu said.

"Sure," Miyoshi said.

"Wait, she gets a free one without having to help out at all? That's just wrong," Tenchi joked. "It looks like everything's going well, though," he said to Erisu. "The inspectors from the city aren't going to be here until 5, until then we should have smooth sailing."

"I'm surprised you're down here, I thought you'd be up with your class," Erisu said. She was a little puzzled--Tenchi's class wasn't in danger of not finishing, but they were a little farther behind than Miyoshi's.

"Well...I just felt bad since I completely slept through practice the other day, so I thought I'd make it up to Miyoshi. Plus I really wanted a free parfait," Tenchi said.

"You don't have to help us all afternoon though, Coach," Miyoshi said, "I know your class probably needs help too."

"No, that's OK--I just want to do this to make it up to you," Tenchi said. Tenchi looked uneasy--he was a good guy, Erisu thought, but a terrible liar. Why was he lying, though?

"Well--I should keep making rounds, maybe I'll go back to my class for the afternoon, they're almost done. See you at 5," Erisu said, and after Tenchi and Miyoshi said goodbye, she walked out of the classroom into the hallway. On her way back up the stairs, she ran into Suginami going the other way taking out a bunch of trash, and stopped him to ask him a question.

"Did you notice anything different about Tenchi this morning?" Erisu asked.

"Different?" Suginami asked, raising an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"I don't know, like he was nervous or something," Erisu said.

"Hmm...if I were about to tell someone I liked them I think I'd be pretty nervous, wouldn't you?" Suginami said. "Hypothetically, of course--see you," Suginami said, heading downstairs. Erisu wondered what he meant--Tenchi had mentioned before that Miyoshi was like the sister he'd never had, but had that feeling changed into something else? With a little less spring in her step than before, Erisu kept walking upstairs to her classroom.

Tenchi stood outside in the sun, halfway up a ladder, helping Miyoshi's class hang a banner for their class's dessert shop outside the school. He could feel his heart pounding--it was exactly three o'clock, right when Miyoshi had her accident. But Miyoshi was safely on the ground this time, he was the one on the ladder, and even if he fell, instead of his head hitting the cement by the drinking fountains as Miyoshi had, he would land harmlessly on a gym mat, part of his unpopular safety regulations. Even so, he'd insisted on hanging the banner himself, because he didn't want to take any chances.

"Looks good," Miyoshi called as Tenchi tied it in place, and he came back down, trying to calm his nerves. He had done it, he thought, as he put both feet on the ground and looked at Miyoshi--she was safe, and the tragedy that had ruined his life was averted. Still, he would play it safe the rest of the afternoon--only when Miyoshi was home safe and sound would he let himself really relax. He felt bad not helping Kokoro and Suginami, and he didn't want Kokoro to think he was avoiding her because of what had happened earlier, but for Miyoshi's sake he had to stick with her a little longer. And besides, as festival coordinator everyone expected him to be busy.

"You sure it's OK to keep helping us out like this, Coach?" Miyoshi asked.

"Sure--no problem at all. I'd feel bad eating my free parfait tomorrow if I didn't earn it," Tenchi insisted. He wished he could tell everyone the truth, but the truth would probably just get him sent to the nuthouse. Tenchi looked up at the sun--it was hot, and being outside had made him really thirsty. "Do you want to take a quick break?" he asked.

"I was just thinking a drink would be good--the vending machine at the end of the hall's broken, but we can go to the one on the second floor," Miyoshi suggested. Tenchi nodded, and he went back into the building and up the stairs to the second floor with Miyoshi, after Miyoshi took drink orders for her friends.

"Erisu-senpai--how's your class coming along?" Miyoshi asked, running into Erisu on the second floor landing.

"Pretty well--I was just going to get a drink, the machine upstairs is empty," Erisu said.

"Really?" Miyoshi asked. "The one on the first floor's broken--I hope that means this one isn't all out too," she said, hurrying ahead to the vending machine to check. Tenchi walked alongside Erisu, following after Miyoshi--after today, he thought, he would tell Erisu how he felt. He wasn't sure if he'd get shot down or not, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't try.

"It's hard to believe we're almost ready," Erisu said, as Miyoshi, ahead of them, fed coins into the vending machine. The vending machine was outside on the small balcony at the end of the hallway.

"I know--the last two weeks really flew by," Tenchi said.

"I don't think I can thank you enough for taking this job--I think it would have been impossible without you," Erisu said.

"I'm sure that's not true," Tenchi said, blushing a little. "It feels like you did most of the work, I know I'm not organized enough to have gotten everything ready by myself."

They reached the machine and Tenchi put a coin in, punching the button for banana milk, which was what Erisu always drank, and then getting himself a soda. Miyoshi had already downed half of her soda, standing out on the balcony.

"Here, it's on me," Tenchi said, handing the banana milk to Erisu.

"I guess I'm pretty predictable," Erisu said, laughing as she took the drink.

"Since you get this every day at lunch, it wasn't too hard to guess," Tenchi replied.

"I feel alive again now," Miyoshi said, finishing the rest of her soda as she leaned on the railing at the edge of the balcony. "All this running around is almost tougher than practice."

"If that's true, I guess I need to make practice a lot harder next week," Tenchi joked.

"Coach, that's--" Miyoshi started to say, when there was a metallic popping sound. Time seemed to slow as the railing Miyoshi was leaning on gave way and she started to fall backwards--Tenchi dropped his drink and lunged forward, reaching out to grab her arm. He managed to grab her arm and yank her towards him, keeping her from falling over the edge, but in doing that he pushed himself forward, and he felt himself falling forward into empty air. He felt someone's hand, probably Erisu's, almost catching him, and then he pitched forward into empty space.

Tenchi could see Miyoshi and Erisu's horrified faces for just an instant, as he fell from the balcony--he couldn't die, he thought, he hadn't told Erisu anything yet, hadn't even made a note in his diary for the last two weeks... As the ground rushed up to meet him in a blur, he saw a glimpse of the sun reflecting off Erisu's pendant above him--and Tenchi finally remembered the first time he had seen it.

He remembered walking down the street in a small town, barely wider than the narrow road that ran through it. It was up in the mountains, on a gorgeous fall day, where the air was just a little crisp but the warmth of the sun made it perfectly comfortable without being hot. The trees alongside the fast-flowing mountain stream had exploded into their full fall glory, on fire with bright reds, yellows, and golds. Tenchi was four years old, and was holding hands with a girl he'd met a couple hours ago--they had both gotten lost, bumped into each other by chance, and decided to stick together and see if they could find their parents. After a while, they had been more interesting in looking around than finding their parents--they had found a playground and played on the swings for an hour, played tag in an old shrine until they were out of breath, and then walked up the road that ran along a small mountain stream until they had come to this town.

"Are you hungry?" the girl asked. Tenchi had looked up at her, and looking back on his memories he realized who it was--the girl was Erisu. She didn't have the pendant around her neck that she always wore now, but it was definitely her.

"A little," Tenchi said. Erisu had fished into her pocket and pulled out a few coins.

"Let's have ice cream then!" Erisu proposed, and Tenchi had gladly agreed. They had bought green tea ice cream cones, downed them in a couple minutes, and then looked around to decide where to go next. They walked into the small store next door, and Erisu stopped in front of a small display of cheap jewelry--and there was the pendant, with a price tag of 500 yen. Erisu looked in her pocket, but a disappointed look came over her face when she saw she didn't have enough money. Tenchi checked his own pockets--and he had a single 500 yen coin.

"Here--I'll buy it for you," Tenchi said, pointing to the pendant.

"Really? But--"

"No, I want to," Tenchi said. "I'll take this one," he said to the storekeeper, pointing to the pendant. The storekeeper smiled.

"Thanks for your business--you two have a good day now," the amused storekeeper said, assuming their parents were just outside and not miles away. Erisu smiled and put the pendant on around her neck.

"How does it look?" Erisu asked. Tenchi turned a little red.

"It looks...pretty good on you," Tenchi said, looking away. Erisu laughed, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

"Aaa! You'll give me cooties!" Tenchi protested.

"Only little kids believe in cooties," five-year old Erisu admonished.

"I bet they went up the road looking for us," Erisu said. "If we keep going up towards the top of the mountain, we should run into them. Or we'll be high enough that we can see them from the very top."

"It looks kind of far," Tenchi said, looking at the top of the mountain. "Can we get that far?"

"Of course we can," Erisu said. "But you have to walk, you're too big for me to carry you."

"I'm almost a grown-up now, I don't need anyone to carry me," four-year old Tenchi declared proudly, and Erisu nodded approvingly.

"Let's go then--you ready?" Erisu said. Tenchi nodded, and they started to walk up the road, out of town. As they passed the last house there was an old woman who watched them as they walked past--Tenchi thought she was a little creepy, and he picked up the pace until they were around a bend in the road and out of her sight.

The road went from a narrow paved road, to a dirt road, and finally to a dirt trail, and the afternoon sun fell lower and lower towards the horizon, but they kept walking, slowly but surely, towards the top of the mountain. On the way they talked and laughed, and Tenchi had found it easy to lose track of time with his new friend. As the sun was just touching the horizon, they came in sight of the top of the mountain, a few hundred feet above them, and at the top was an open meadow, the tall grass in it swaying in a light breeze. The path came to an end at the edge of the meadow, and a vermillion torii gate stood over the end of the trail. An old wooden rope ran across the gate, with an old straw pair of sandals hung over it that made Tenchi hesitate as they walked forward.

"We almost made it--let's go," Erisu said, smiling. "We'll definitely be able to see them from that meadow." Tenchi tugged her shirt sleeve.

"I don't think this is a good idea--Grandpa said where there are sandals like that there's a barrier that normal people shouldn't cross," Tenchi said.

"That's just superstition, probably," Erisu said, looking a little nervous but still determined. "Look!" she said, pointing to the meadow as she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Tenchi looked and in the fading sunlight, they could see fireflies, darting in and out among the tall grass, blinking on and off with their unearthly greenish light.

"Come on, let's catch some!" Erisu said, running through the gate into the meadow.

Tenchi hesitated for just a moment, then hurried after her. As the sky darkened they ran around the meadow, the valley and the town they had gone through spread out in a perfect panorama below them. Chasing the winking fireflies with Erisu, Tenchi didn't think he'd ever had as much fun. They lost track of time, and they chased after the fireflies, caught them, and let them go again, the stars coming out to mirror the lights of the fireflies below.

Tenchi and Erisu laughed and ran until they were out of breath--until all at once, all of the fireflies turned off their lights at the same time and an icy wind blew over the mountain.

"What is it?" Erisu asked, her voice sounding a little scared. Tenchi held his hand up.

"Stay behind me," he said, sounding more courageous than he felt. Tenchi remembered the sutra his grandfather had taught him for warding off evil, and keeping himself between Erisu and the icy wind, he chanted it over and over, at least the parts of it that he could remember. A thick mist began to form across the whole meadow they were standing in, and a dark, looming shape appeared in front of them. Tenchi closed his eyes and winced, trying to chant but his lips unable to form the words of the chant that might protect them.

"Run..." Tenchi managed to say to Erisu, but she shook her head and stood next to him, her fists clenched. "Run! You can't fight this!" he yelled hoping at least he could slow it down enough for her to get away, but the dark shape was close now, darkness seeming to close in around them with the mist, as the stars went out one by one...Tenchi could hear Erisu yelling something, but he was losing consciousness...

With a burst of brilliant blue light, Tenchi's grandfather appeared out of nowhere, stepping in front of Tenchi and Erisu--

--and catching him, breaking his fall effortlessly. Tenchi blinked and his grandfather was setting him down on the ground, below the balcony he'd just fallen off of.

"G...Grandpa," Tenchi said, looking up at him. "How did you--"

"I just thought I'd go for a little walk and see how everything was going for the festival," he said. "Guess my timing was good."

"Ten-chan! Are you OK!" Erisu called from the broken railing up above, as a small crowd started to gather around.

"I'm fine!" he called back. "Thank you," Tenchi said to his grandfather. "I really owe you one."

"I was just in the right place at the right time this time," he said, winking. Tenchi wondered--did he know about everything that had happened before he'd gone back two years in time? If he did, his grandfather would probably never say, just as he'd never talked about the monster on top of the mountain that he'd defeated all those years ago.

Erisu and Miyoshi came running towards Tenchi from the building, and his grandfather helped him back up to his feet as the crowd that had gathered around clapped--and Tenchi breathed a huge sigh of relief.

A couple hours later, the sun set, and the lights started coming on in the school, showing at a glance which classes had put things off to the last possible minute or which had plans that were more ambitious than they had time for, and were now scrambling to finish up. Tenchi and Kokoro's class wasn't one of them, and neither was Miyoshi's--Tenchi had still checked in on Miyoshi frequently, but she seemed to be fine, and while she was a little shaken after the incident she seemed perfectly back to normal now.

Tenchi felt tired, but happy--it looked like the festival was going to be a success. He could tell he was getting a little nervous thinking about telling Erisu that he liked her, but after the near-accident he'd had he was even more determined to tell her. He walked outside the school building and stood in front of it, looking up at the lights and the sounds of the classes that were still working. He smiled--everyone was doing their best to make it a success, he'd need to try hard with Erisu too. He thought about her smile, her laugh, the way her hair smelled like shampoo when she was close to him--there was just no one on Earth he would rather be with. And tomorrow he would get the chance to see the festival with her. He resolved he'd spend more time with Kokoro and Suginami too, since Kokoro was leaving soon and he really was going to miss her.

Tenchi was wondering how he should bring up to Erisu that he'd finally remembered when they'd first met, when he saw Miyoshi out of the corner of his eye walking out of the building.

"Miyoshi!" he called, waving, and Miyoshi waved back and walked over to where he was. She had her backpack on and looked like she was leaving for the day. "Everything all finished?"

"Yep," Miyoshi said, smiling. "I'm so tired I could fall asleep on my desk, but I should get home before it gets too late. Thank you again, Coach--if you hadn't grabbed my arm, I'd--"

"--have had to get caught by my grandpa. I don't wish that on anyone," Tenchi said, laughing. "Here, I'll walk you back," Tenchi said--he figured Miyoshi was in the clear now, but he was still nervous enough he'd feel better seeing her get home safely.

"That's OK, Coach, I'll be fine," Miyoshi said.

"Actually, I need to go to the convenience store over there for something anyway," Tenchi said. "So it's no trouble."

"OK--sure, then," Miyoshi said, and they started walking out the school gate. Up on the third floor, Erisu saw them walking out of the campus together and sighed.

Erisu stood up on the roof of the school, the night air a little cooler than it had been before, and the sky completely dark, the stars arching across the sky in their nearly infinite glory. She could hear the sounds of the classes that were still working, drifting up to the roof through the open windows, but right now she wasn't thinking about the festival. It looked like the clue she'd given him hadn't jogged Tenchi's memory of when they had first met--but he'd been really young then and she couldn't reasonably expect him to remember now, eleven years later.

A firefly flew over to Erisu and landed on the bench near her, lighting up with a greenish glow, and Erisu could see there were dozens of them, dancing in the starlight, their unearthly light winking on and off as they played in the warm summer night. She remembered that evening a long time ago with Tenchi, chasing the fireflies, and wished she could relive that moment, or somehow stretch it out to last forever.

She looked up at the stars, the Milky Way a smoky band of light across the sky, and wondered when she had started to like Tenchi. Had it been when they'd first met a long time ago? Or sometime in junior high or high school? She wondered if he felt the same way--but since all day he had been sticking with Miyoshi maybe she was the one he was really interested in. Today Tenchi had seemed to be avoiding her, and whenever she had gone to look for him, he had been with Miyoshi. She closed her eyes and wondered what would happen if Tenchi and Miyoshi started going out--Erisu really liked Miyoshi, and she knew as her friend she should root for her and Tenchi, but just thinking about it made her want to cry. She wanted to ask him about it, but she had seen him leaving--he hadn't come by to tell her he was going home, although earlier in the day he had told her he would.

"Erisu-chan?" Tenchi's voice said. Erisu opened her eyes, surprised, and quickly wiped a tear away.

"Tenchi? I thought I saw you leaving," Erisu said, as Tenchi walked over and sat down on the bench next to her.

"I was just walking Miyoshi home--I feel like I should apologize, but--"

"It's OK," Erisu said. "You don't have to spend tomorrow going around the festival with me--I mean, if you have other--"

"No, I want to, really," Tenchi said, looking serious. Looking into Erisu's eyes in the starlight on the roof, he decided he'd never find a better time to tell her how he felt. "It's that...there's something I wanted to tell you," he said. "Something I should have told you before--but I guess it's something I didn't realize." Erisu could feel her heart pounding--was he going to tell her he liked Miyoshi? She wanted to yell at him not to say anything, but she felt paralyzed and couldn't make a sound.

"I remembered," Tenchi said. "When I fell off the roof, I don't know why, but I remembered. How we first met, when you bought me ice cream in that little town--when I bought you the pendant. I don't know why I forgot, maybe from shock from the monster--but I remembered it all, I think," Tenchi said. Erisu reached out and took his hand in hers--her hand was tiny and soft, Tenchi thought, and her touch made his heart skip a beat. "Erisu..." Tenchi said, looking into her eyes under the stars, "the truth is...I love you," he said. "I don't know how I didn't notice before but--" Tenchi was cut off as Erisu leaned forward towards him, closed her eyes, and kissed him, her soft, warm lips against his. Tenchi closed his eyes and kissed her back--and for a long moment, for both of them the rest of the world slipped away, and it was just the two of them, reunited forever.

August 2005


End file.
